By Captain Dave Funk
Clash Daily Contributor
Flying as Captain on the very first flight Northwest Airlines operated after the 9-11 Attacks on America, in my DC9 over Madison, Wisconsin at 35,000 feet on the night of September 15, 2001, I commented on that clear night to my First Officer, a retired F16 Pilot, as I looked down upon all of Lake Michigan and the ground lights stretching from Dorr County, Wisconsin to Chicago and off to the Western Shore of Lake Michigan “…that some guy in a cave in Afghanistan thought he could shut this operation down”. Bin Laden thought having some of his minions crash a few airplanes into some buildings would shut down America. I understood clearly the lessons from that fateful week; the difference between America’s Declaration of Independence and that the moral constructs of both Islam and Altruism are not compatible.
To Quote Ayn Rand from Philosophy: Who Needs It: “What most moralists – and few of their victims – realize is that reason and altruism are incompatible. And this is the basic contradiction of Western Civilization: reason versus altruism. This is the conflict that had to blow sooner or later.”
In the summer 2006, I was sitting in a Dining Facility (DFAC, we used to call them chow halls) at Bagram AFB, Afghanistan, about to commence a several hour’s long surveillance mission high over places I can’t talk about here. I reflected upon a Gawker.com article I had just read predicting the outcome of the upcoming civil war in America between the right and the left. The author, obviously a Pajama Boy, was sure the left would win because of how much smarter the left is than those on the right. Looking about at the true bad asses I was surrounded by in that DFAC quietly eating lunch, I knew that just the group in this DFAC could wipe out Pajama Boy and several thousand of his liberal friends.
Of all the talk right now by the leftist and radicals about the likely second civil war coming to America, as Ayn Rand said “had to come to blow”, this fight between reason and altruism is that this will not end well for the left; history tells us it never does. Less than 20% of Americans describe themselves as liberal or very liberal. In a war of attrition, history is not on the side starting out with a 4:1 disadvantage in troops. Especially when the side with the 4:1 advantage is mostly populated with the kind of men and women I worked with every day in Afghanistan. Americans are a pretty belligerent people, unlike those submissive types from Asia and Europe who our forefathers left behind.
The view from 35,000 feet then, and now from 41,000 feet, it’s pretty clear that President Trump’s election may have saved millions of leftist lives from an inevitable civil war. Just one of many other reasons America Is Great Again.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/02/america_altruism_and_trump.html#ixzz4YcWVKFQS
photo credit: Gage Skidmore Make America Great Again hat via photopin (license)
Captain Dave Funk: Constitutionalist, hunter, dad and patriot, Dave has retired as both a US Army attack helicopter pilot and a Boeing 757 International Captain for Northwest Airlines; Dave has spent most of the last few years piloting US Department of Defense special mission aircraft in the “Sandbox”. With a unique perspective on the world that comes from thousands of hours at 41,000 feet, his ability to explain complex aviation question in simple terms has earned him guest commentator spots on most major TV and radio networks.
